Exercise And Healthy Eating To Lose Weight The Easy Way

Obesity is at record levels, and people are dying because of it! Hopefully that got your attention. It seems as though we are constantly being told just how bad the problem of people being overweight is, and the trend seems to be going up. At the same time, there are people who are interested in exercise and healthy eating to lose weight. Unfortunately, far too many of them don't lose any weight, and some end up weighing more than when they started. What follows are some ways to keep this from happening to you.

The basic formula for calories is that 3,500 calories equals one pound of body weight. In other words, if you take in that many calories, you will gain a pound; if you burn off that many calories you will lose a pound. There are some slight variations based on the foods you eat and what activities you do, but this simple formula is good to know.

Now, looking at the math, we can see that 3,500 divided by the 7 days in a week works out to 500 calories per day. Therefore, if you can get rid of an extra 500 calories each day, you will lose a pound. You can do this through any combination of taking in fewer or burning more calories. For example, if you would take in 300 fewer calories and burn 200 more calories, then that would add up to 500, or a loss of one pound per week.

Eating healthy so you can lose weight means eating the right kinds of foods and choosing foods that are lower in calories. If you are exercising as part of your effort to lose weight, then you will actually be able to eat a bit more so you can fuel your body for its workout. However, don't use exercise as an excuse to eat whatever you want. You still need to watch what you eat if you want to get rid of those extra pounds. But burning more calories through exercise will allow you to eat more than if you were sedentary.

Exercise and healthy eating to lose weight go hand-in-hand in another way. How? Well, exercise has been shown to increase metabolism. First, it will increase it while you are working out, and for a short while after you're done. Second, muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn, even when you are at rest. Having your metabolism boosted means you will be burning the calories you eat at a faster pace. If you have any high-calorie items on your diet menu, then eating them close to your workout will help your body burn it off more quickly.

Not all exercise is created equal when it comes to losing weight though. Resistance exercises, such as weight lifting, are better at building metabolism boosting muscle tissue. The reason is that muscle needs to constantly receive fuel, even when you are resting, but fatty tissue does not. So, as you can see, exercise and healthy eating to lose weight is about attacking the problem from two angles, and making the right choices.